Hasta pronto!
Letter from Mexico! Before she starts working on her master's thesis, Estefanía González does some traveling.
Jan 05, 2016
Estefanía González in front of the famous Fuente de los Coyotes in the district of Coyoacán, where the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo lived.
Image Credit: Talia Cox
Packed backpacks: Before she starts working on her master's thesis, Estefanía González has gone traveling.
Image Credit: Private
And then the semester was over! I spent the last two weeks of the semester in the main library of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) to finish my essays. They are finally all turned in. It wasn't so bad because you always meet a lot of friends in the library, which makes it easier to spend the whole day sitting inside when the sun is shining outside – in December! So I spent my days in the library dealing with various approaches to urban violence and crime in Latin American cities. Evenings I met my friends to go running on the campus, which is good for more than purely academic activities.
My professor, who is a young Canadian woman who has been living here for three years with her Mexican husband and their three children, wants to discuss the preparatory work for my master's thesis. She tells me about her current projects with young people from the drug trafficking scene in Mexico City. She is also helping me to structure my field work among the Disappeared of Mexico. The exchange with her is very inspiring. My master's thesis will be a complex project, but I am looking forward to getting started on it during the next semester!
But first I have packed my backpack: I will be heading south toward Chiapas. I moved out of my beloved shared flat and had to bid farewell to the capital. I was sad, but am also really looking forward to the journey! Apart from southern Mexico, I will be traveling to Guatemala, the Rivera Maya, and Cuba. That made parting a lot easier!
I gave my Mexican roommate homemade Christmas cookies baked from a special German recipe. We want to continue seeing each other often during the next semester, even though we will no longer be sharing the same apartment. Hasta pronto Distrito Federal, see you soon!